The Folkin' Idiot (GC3)
By Neil Cleary
FOLKIN’ IDIOT CLIN N’ SAVE SUN SUMMER FESTIVAL SPECIAL or around the state in a couple of days, by phone.
Thanks for tuning in to another edition of the Folkin’ Idiot column, as this month I take off the mantle of interviewer and embark on a telephone sojourn. Down the wires we travel, in search of Vermont summer folk festivals. Following the smell of barbecue, the buzz of flies and fiddle, the squeals of children, the hushes of parents in rat attention, Far from the last word on anything, I aim to provide a chronicle of my information gathering, as well as maybe a bit of how-to for seekers of old-time, Appalachian, bluegrass and all related European noises.
Donning my telephone headset, pen in hand my first call is to Bob Yellin of Joint Chiefs of Bluegrass fame. He’s about to take off for a week’s vacation. As a festival organizer, his summer will most likely a busy one. On his way out the door, probably stretching the phone cord, he’s able to list off performers for this year’s Champlain Valley Festival: Tom Paxton , Si Kahn, Lucy Blue-Tremblay, Utah Philips, the DelMcCoury band, Rude Girls, the Copper Family, and Tom Paley (formerly of the New Lost City Ramblers). There'll be dance bands as well, among them Wild Asparagus and the Clayfoot Strutters with Mary Desrosiers calling. Easily the largest and most diversified folk festival in the area, CVF features a number of stages, as well as food and craft tents. Festivalgoers will again gather ‘neath the sheltering pines of UVM’S Redstone Campus the weekend of August 4-6. Day tickets and weekend passes are available at a reduced rate before June 15th. Folks can call the festival number locally at 899-1111 or toll free at 1-800-769-9176.
A call to Mark Sustic turns up a number of leads and contact people, as I imagine him seated at a giant switchboard, rolodex in hand, behind him a giant lighted map of Vermont, “I seek news of Belvedere,” I saw. “Town Clerk,” says Mark. Lo and behold a call to the town clerk proves very informational. It's an older woman by the sound of her voice, working out of her home, se talls me. After exhausting her memory and resources, she suggests I call down to Tallmans’ Store, seeing as someone down there might know about the festival. She also suggests I call Neil Brown, the festival organizer, down at Marin’s Machine Ship, I call down to Matin’s and Neil answers. “So,” he says, “Mom filled you in on most of it?” (Mom?) Despite all of this, I found out the following: Rattling Brook Bluegrass Festival of Belvedere, sponsored by the Belvedere Community Club and organized by Neil Brown for all of its 11 years. An all-day event, 10am till 8pm, happens the second Saturday in June (10th). Ten bucks buys you admission, parking, and the musical favors of the following bands: the Warrior River Boys (of Alabama), the Gibson Brothers (NY), local greats Breakaway, Lost Possum Gopher Broke, and the Lost Nation Valley Bots, It’s in the same place it’s always been, the route should be clearly marked once you get to town, You can call the Town Clerk 647-2498 or Neil at Martin’s, 644-5804. Go with this knowledge, though: driving up to the festival a couple years ago, I would stop to ask for directions and have virtually the same conversation with everyone. It sent: Me: “How do I get to BELvedere?” person being asked: “Oh, belveDERE?”
Both Neil and his mom mention that up at the Cabin Fever festival in Middlebury they’d heard about a new festival in Brandon. A call to the Brandon town clerk gets me the number for Linda Berry, organizer of the 1st annual Basin Bluegrass Festival. Bold thing to do, start a festival – TO BOLDLY GO WHERE NO FESTIVAL HAS GONE BEFORE… Sound’s like Linda’s hard at work; even in April the place seems to be a hub of activity. Between her on the phone and her husband shouting out details from the next room, this is what I get: the festival will take place the weekend of July 7-9 at Wyman’s Pond in Basin Road, Brandon. It's an established area, she assures me, not some dug up gravel pit or in a swamp. There will be vendors, food and crafts, as well as sidewalk sales in Brandon. Camping “in the rough” is available Thursday through Sunday with a weekend pass. Passes can be had for $22.50 before June 23 or $25 after. Featured bands will be: Blistered Fingers (Maine), Smokey Greene (VT), Grass Creek (Ontario), Andy Pawlenko and the Smoky Hollow Boys (NY), Misty Mountain Review (Maine), Cedar Ridge (NY), and Cold Country Bluegrass (VT). Friday begins at 4pm with an open stage, band running 9-9:45. Saturday runs 10am-11pm, Sunday starts with gospel at 10am, band running from noon till 5, You can call Linda Berry at 247-3275 or get advance tickets through the Neshobe Sportsman’s Club at P.O Box 321, Brandon, VT 05733
I live in a house with 6 people. The job of sorting out the phone bills is mine. At this point in my telephonic travels I’m making note of any calls, knowing I will see all of this later. Hoping also that mauve in my wildest dreams, Good Citizen will reimburse me for the phone time. Maybe I should be taking these people to lunch. Maybe I’m dreaming…
Another Mark Sustic lead puts me on the phone to Betty Cameron of the Northeast Fiddlers Association. Betty’s house doesn’t sound like so much of a nerve center, but slowly, names of festivals start to come out.. Something in Newport, Island Pond, the Cracker Barrel Bazaar in Newbury. I am suddenly overcome with a vision of hundreds of fiddlers all over the Northeast, sawing away in every spare nook and cranny. Swarms of fiddlers, like black flies, gathering at festivals. An army of men, women and children, heads cocked in some kind of half-sleep, arms raised like zombies, wrists raised, fingers enclawed, eyes rolled back into their heads… Shaking myself back to consciousness, I call Roger Perrault, head of this year’s Northeast Fiddlers Association 19th Annual old-Time Fiddling and Step Dancing Contest. You can catch this extravaganza the last weekend in September (29th + 20th) in the Barre Municipal Auditorium. Things get started Friday around 7pm and Saturday all day til around midnight, depending on how many contestants they get. Sometimes it’ll go til 1 or 2, Roger says. Roger can be reached at 879-1536 for further information.
For those who need their fiddle fix earlier though, there’s the famous Hardwick Fiddler’s Festival. This year is about the 14th annual, having gone for around 20 years in Craftsbury before that. Thus from Ron Saville, festival chair, for the last 3 years, having been involved 6 years in all. It’s these 6 years that the Knights of Columbus have taken up the standard, as the festival was “about to fade into history”. It takes place the last Saturday in July in Shepard’s Field, Hardwick. The first bow hits the strings at 10am and things don’t stop til around that night. Admission is $7, kids under 12 are free and the gate fee is reimbursed for contestants. Folks can enter the contest upon arrival, which doesn’t mean fiddling you way through the gate, just that pre-registration is not mandatory. Last year they had 58 fiddlers, from all over the U.S and Canada, including one from Ireland who couldn't compete but performed nonetheless. There’s 4 age categories this year, due to the addition of a “Junior Junior” category for, believe it or not, kids under twelve. “Some of those kids’ll fiddle your ears right off,” swears Sanville.
And speaking of ears coming off, mine are about there, with or without fiddling whizkids. Plus, by now, in my telephone survey I'm keeping my roommates from their loved ones. A word must be said for the pipers though, and I find the right person in Matt Buckley, as well as a full circle - he’s also a Champlain Valley Festival organizer. Matt clues me in to the North Hero Northumbrian Pipers Convention, which has been drawing the best peppers from all over the world for the last 12 years or so. All sorts of pipes will be gathered there, from Highland pipes to Irish to small pipes to Brenton pipes, as well as assorted fiddlers and dancers. It happens the last weekend in August and sounds to be quite a happening. Pipers can warm up their chops the weeks before the festival at Buckley’s own piping school, taught by the famous Hamish Moore. The school takes about 20 pipers under its wing (under its elbow?) and usually produces a session at Burlington’s Dockside Café or the VT Pub and brewery. Pipe Heads are welcome to come listen into the school itself as well, by arrangement with Mr. Buckley at 434-4515.
Matt also mentioned the St. Andrew’s society of Shelburne, with pipes aplenty and festivals to boot, but at this point my ears are too weary. I can console myself, barring earmuffs, with the thought that perhaps I have offered ample hope to some soul thirsty for melodious sound this summer, either with information or inspiration to take up the project yourself. And with this I wish you good luck in your searches, may they be fruitful if not downright noisy.
Neil Cleary is host of the Folkin’ Idiot radio program, broadcast Fridays 9am to 12 noon on 90.1 WRUV-FM, Burlington vermont.